The genesis of corruptionTahir Kamran

June 19, 2016

Is a corruption-free Pakistan possible?

A few days back, an old acquaintance asked me about the future pattern of Punjab politics in the wake of a scam as big as the Panama Leaks. I told him nothing is likely to effect any change in the existing pattern of Punjab politics. Not a single parliamentarian has raised a voice or threatened to depose the current rulers because ‘the first family’ has off-shore companies and the source of capital invested is shrouded in obscurity.Of course it is corruption. But then isn’t that the way of life in the land of the pure? If it is an art, we have perfected it; if it is a science, we have excelled in it. More worryingly, we have accorded legitimacy to corrupt practices. In fact, we celebrate both corruption and the corrupt.In the Victorian era, man was defined as a symbol of masculinity, white (read Caucasian) and rational with values derived from the Christian faith. If we try to define Pakistani ‘man’, corruption has to be an essential trait that he is bound to carry in order to qualify as ‘man’. He also has to be yaran da yar, (friend of friends) which means a real ‘man’ shows no respect for any law or regulation when it comes to his friends, cronies or sidekicks.Thus in our case, violating the law or even constitution for that matter symbolises how powerful someone is. For the poor, corruption may be a means of climbing the social ladder but for the rich and affluent, corruption is the means to express power.Another acquaintance jestingly said the other day that he has tried to make a payment of a few dollars to get his name included in the list that has emerged out of Panama Leaks. I asked him why he did that, knowing he wasn’t serious. He replied that it was a sign of ‘respectability’; it becomes damn easy to marry off a daughter to a boy from a good family if you can affirm your wealth.Historians (particularly Edward Gibbon) have inferred from the past that when wealth becomes the principal determinant of the values that society respects, the fall of that society becomes inevitable. The same happened with the Romans and they fell, never to rise again. The generation of wealth and even more so its distribution should be carried out through mutually agreed regulations, which the Romans started flouting with impunity, and hence their fall.For the poor, corruption may be a means of climbing the social ladder but for the rich and affluent, corruption is the means to express power.Indeed, it needs no less than a miracle for any nation/civilization to rejuvenate itself. China can be put forth as one rare example. But it too will have to go a long way to match the sole super power, USA.Another of my friends says, “corruption and Pakistan are like two peas in a pod”. His observation seems sweeping, yet it cannot be easily denied. The first and foremost cause of corruption was embedded in the cataclysmic event of Partition. This is depicted in the relevant chapters from the works of Ilyas Chattha, Urvashi Butalia, Yasmin Khan and Vazira Zamindar. Such events as the partition of India are no less than the upheavals of history bringing about the tectonic shift in the established norms of sociology and culture.As a consequence of an event of such magnitude, usually a break from the past (though selective) is intended which causes rupture in the centuries-old tradition. The process of evolution which is usually gradual and steady is markedly disrupted. Such disruptions tear the affected people apart from the socio-cultural norms and practices which have hitherto defined their collective ethos. Every one, in such a scenario, is running for life. En masse relocation and genocide, such as were concomitant to partition, gave a big blow to the sensibility that binds people together.Many living the life of relative deprivation in united India saw Pakistan as a land of opportunities, and came to the newly-founded country for economic gains. In the newly established state of Pakistan, regulatory structures were not in place to check any arbitrary practice aiming to amass wealth or to grab property. Thus the people who could, did all that was possible to secure wealth. Partition catapulted many from rags to riches. These sort of sudden changes contravene the smooth and gradual process of evolution, which people find really hard to come to terms with.Another cataclysmic event was secession of East Pakistan, which gave a big jolt to the morale of the people. The trust in the future of the country was considerably undermined, a ripe situation in which corruption could proliferate.Unfortunately Pakistan’s politics, right from the outset, was marred by inconsistent transitions. One political order was substituted by the other, with the two having hardly anything in common. Hence, the transition was abrupt and instantaneous. Political compromises of the oddest kind were made merely for personal gains. Characters like Ghulam Muhammad, Iskander Mirza and Ayub Khan did not allow institutions to germinate and blossom. The will of the people was not sought, in the first place; if and when elections were held, non-political actors wielded more power than the elected ones.Therefore, institutions remained weak and their fate uncertain. Religious ideology was deployed for self-legitimisation with disastrous consequences. In such a scenario, when state institutions were weakened beyond measure, corruption flourished rampantly.Such political choices made by the Pakistani elite conjured up a social fabric which was amenable to practices which were corrupt to the core. I do believe that a social movement spearheaded by the intelligentsia can stall that trend. But Pakistan’s history fails to register the existence of any social movement aimed at raising awareness among the people about such an issue of wider significance. So, thus far, there is no hope for a corruption-free Pakistan.

Last Night Discussion on Form-14 Verifications

By Moeed Pirzada

Discussion with Mudassar Rizvi & Fawad was a bit technical but very important to current political crisis and negotiations. What we all need to understand is that the fundamental, the most necessary election record for verification is Statement of Count called Form-14. This Form-14 (Statement of Count) when filled completely details the: Total Registered Voters at the Polling Stations, Male Vote, Female Vote, Vote Cast, Vote Rejected and Total Accepted Vote. Form 15 & 16 prepared by Returning Officers (RO) that give the total result of a Constituency as to who has won is only a simple addition of all Form-14’s received from all Polling Stations.

Each Constituency of National Assembly in Pakistan consisted of anywhere from 250-300 Polling Stations. Each Polling Station was headed by a Presiding Officer designated by Election Commission. Who and who were appointed by Election Commission is an essential record; these were mostly officers of Education Department or Agriculture Dept. or such other provincial govt departments. Their “signatures” and “thumb impressions” are not only part of NADRA record but are also available from AGPR Office from where they draw their salaries.

Most Polling Stations have registered voters anywhere from 700 to 1500. So if Polling ends at 5pm, within 2-3 hours Form-14’s are ready for distribution to Polling Agents and onward deposit to the Returning Officers. At every Polling Station at the end of Voting, votes were counted within 2-3 hours supposedly in the presence of polling agents of several political parties. Presiding Officers by law issue Form-14 after signing on their names & titles, fixing their own thumb impression and writing CNIC. This constitutes a dully Filled Form-14. Form-14 is a Public Document; it should be put outside the Polling Station; may be given to Media and given the universal presence of new Camera software in every phone we can capture their photos for record.(Suggestion for Media and Election Monitors for Next Elections)

What Mudassar (FAFEN) was suggesting was that before a Judicial Commission or any JIT starts to go towards the Vote Count, the first basic steps should be done which will reveal a lot about the Elections and the next steps like Vote Count in Constituencies. The first basic steps should be to verify if Election Commission has all Form-14’s dully filled from all Polling Stations of all Constituencies. There should be around 69-70,000 Form-14’s for National Assembly and the same for Provincial Assemblies (since same Polling Stations were used) so around 138-139,000 Form-14s should be in possession of Election Commission. (ECP as per its own plan and commitment was supposed to put scanned copies of all these Form-14’s on its Website but for reasons not explained it has not been able to do it, which itself is a very suspicious act and raises very difficult questions)

Once ECP confirms the presence of duly filled Form-14’s, the next simple step is verification of the “thumb impressions” and signatures of the Presiding Officers on these Form-14’s. Since the record of the appointment of the Presiding Officers is available and their signatures and thumb impressions are part of record in NADRA and AGPR so it should take only 2-3 or at most 3-4 days of electronic work by NADRA to verify if the Form-14’s with ECP used for final Election Result are the same that were issued by designated Presiding Officers at the designated Polling Stations or they were changed at a later stage at the level of RO’s or DRO’s. It is important to understand that RO or DRO or ECP cannot change the Form-14 once issued without the Due Process of Law. Also keep in mind that large number of copies of the Form-14’s issued by Presiding Officers are available with PPP, PTI, PMLN, other parties, Election Monitors and Media and once these Form-14’s are made available on ECP’s website it is possible for public to check if the Form-14’s used by ECP for result calculation are the same that were issued by Presiding Officers in the evening of 11th May 2013 (Day of controversial Elections)

This is only one step; many follow through steps are possible. FAFEN may issue a press release which we will follow. What is the basic idea? The idea is that Election Investigations is a fact finding mathematical job; this is not a legal or constitutional task. Legal and Constitutional issues are very secondary or tertiary in this task. This explains why Election Tribunals are not of much help. Because in Election Tribunals allegations are being addressed or scrutinized as per law and procedure. Complainants are supposed to bring hard evidence of rigging which they often can not assemble on their own. And the issues keep on dragging. So Election Tribunals – the way they are working – have limited application to this challenge of fact finding and determination of what happened. For example whole Town may have seen a murder but in a Pakistani court room it may still not be possible to prove that who killed whom. Election Tribunals unfortunately, the way they are constituted, also fall in the same category.

This also explains why PTI & Govt Negotiations are not reaching anywhere. PTI wants Constituency records (30 or more Constituencies) and documents, votes etc to be checked and scrutinized which is simple common sense of “fact finding”. But PMLN & Allies term this as “Super Tribunals” and unconstitutional. When in his latest address to the concluding hours of Joint Parliamentary Session, PM Nawaz Sharif said that “we won’t accept any constitutional demands” he was not worried about his “resignation” he was referring also to this process of checking Election Results. What PMLN has been suggesting (when they say we have accepted Five Points) is that Judicial Commission should investigate allegations leveled by Imran Khan and PTI against RO’s, DRO’s, Iftikahar Chaudhry, Najam Sethi and ECP etc or allegations that PMLN was responsible for rigging through Interim Governments or that PMLN was the beneficiary. This is a legal trick, the kind of which is used by lawyers in courts to defend their clients. In terms of Investigations into the Elections, the basic Election Audit these are meaningless time wasting excuses and nothing else.

We hope these ideas, discussed in 19th Sept, 2014 ARY Special broadcast and this Facebook Note reaches all political parties and Siyasi Jirga and it may help them. We have not seen PTI Negotiations Team’s final and actual written suggestions handed over to PMLN & Allies in govt but we have seen the proposals by Siyasi Jirga of JI and PPP and Sisyasi Jirga proposals are definitely weak, ambiguous and wishy-washy. They don’t offer any mathematical result oriented Audit of the Elections. All political parties, media pundit and students of political science and Pakistan’s international stake holders need to realize that given the doubts and controversy around Election 2013, any next elections in Pakistan will be meaningless unless the nature of irregularities of Election-2013 are resolved and lessons learnt for Electoral Reform. Similarly Election Commissions recommendations today for Electoral Reform and Electronic Voting etc are another waste of time since Electronic Voting can be doubly dangerous without creating institutions of integrity and the Members of current Election Commission have lost their trust in public eye; they should just resign.

Elections are the only reliable instrument for a “Transition of Power” in a democracy. Future of Democracy in Pakistan is at threat not because of protests but because Elections-2013 are most controversial since 1977 and significant sections of Pakistani population have lost trust in that exercise and there won’t be any trust in a future elections without resolving these issues. – More later on this.

A news to surprise people of

Pakistan

Poor Ex- Chief Justice of Pakistan is constructing a house of his own.

Selection Editor: Adnan Khan

People of the country might have not forgotten what our worthy Ex- Chief Justice had said while entire Pakistan wanted probe into corrupt practices of his son Arslan Iftikhar, who defrauded a local businessman of almost half a billion of rupees, as being thought using the good office of his father, who happened to be the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

The honorable Ex- Chief Justice sahib had said while hearing a suo-Moto case in the above referred matter, thought at that time by leading lawyers to have been taken to save his son, in the presence of full court that all through his carrier, being a salaried person, he could never save enough to even build a house of his own over even One Kanal nor could till to date own a car of his own.

What a pitiable state of life for an honest poor salaried person of his stature. Of course, he was very right to express his inability to own such things within limited income as a salaried person. Very True.

However, now after a passage of around two years, an exciting but worth pondering news, out of blue, using his magic wand, then Poor Chief Justice, now EX-CHIEF JUSTICE of Pakistan is very conveniently constructing a Palatial House on a plot measuring 12 Kanals in Cantonment area of Lahore, a Posh Residential Area, where the cost of land is only Rupees 30 Crore.

The construction of said palatial house, having covered area of around 18000 sft, is in full swing, the insiders have revealed that the said house is being constructed at a cost of RS. 7000/sft. The over all cost of works, including landscaping etc, etc is around RS 15 Crore. Noteable, the cost of interior works is beside the said amount, which is yet to be carried out, duly being designed by one of the top interior designers of the country.

For sure, what else a poor honest salaried Ex-Judge of Pakistan cannot do anything more than what is now been seen on the ground.

Judge Iftikhar Chaudhry is a traitor to Pakistan’s constitution. He must go.

Our memories are short but not that short particularly with respect to Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry:

Oath on PCO 19991. In January 2000, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, then a serving judge on the Balochistan High Court (BHC), was one of the first judges to take the oath on the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) of the military dictator General Musharraf in violation of Pakistan’s constitution. This allowed him to be elevated to the Supreme Court to fill one of the vacancies left by the 11 judges who had resigned in protest at taking this oath.

Validation of the military coup2. On May 13, 2000, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of the 12 Supreme Court judges who validated the military coup of Gen Pervez Musharraf. They ruled that the removal of the elected government of Nawaz Sharif was legal on the basis of the ‘doctrine of necessity’.

Forced resignation of President Tarar3. In June 2001, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of two judges who visited the President House to convince the then President Rafiq Tarrar to resign, and make way for Gen Pervez Musharraf to assume that office.

The honorable Ex- Chief Justice sahib had said while hearing a suo-Moto case in the above referred matter, thought at that time by leading lawyers to have been taken to save his son, in the presence of full court that all through his carreer, being a salaried person, he could never save enough to even build a house of his own over even One Kanal nor could till to date own a car of his own.

What a pitiable state of life for an honest poor salaried person of his stature. Of course, he was very right to express his inability to own such things within limited income as a salaried person. Very True.

However, now after a passage of around two years, an exciting but worth pondering news, out of blue, using his magic wand, then Poor Chief Justice, now EX-CHIEF JUSTICE of Pakistan is very conveniently constructing a Palatial House on a plot measuring 12 Kanals in Cantonment area of Lahore, a Posh Residential Area, where the cost of land is only Rupees 30 Crore.

The construction of said palatial house, having covered area of around 18000 sft, is in full swing, the insiders have revealed that the said house is being constructed at a cost of RS. 7000/sft. The over all cost of works, including landscaping etc, etc is around RS 15 Crore. Noteable, the cost of interior works is beside the said amount, which is yet to be carried out, duly being designed by one of the top interior designers of the country.

For sure, what else a poor honest salaried Ex-Judge of Pakistan cannot do anything more than what is now been seen on the ground.

In a wide ranging judgment they declared that the Legal Framework Order (LFO) instituted by General Musharraf after his suspension of the Constitution, the 17th Amendment which gave this constitutional backing, and the two offices bill which allowed Musharraf to retain his military uniform whilst being President were all legal.

Nepotism: Son’s Admission In FIAAnsar Abbasi brought forth allegations against Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhray for gross misconduct in 2002, accusing him for admitting his Son Dr. Arsalan to FIA undermining all merits. For details, see this post on ATP

Selective judgement on PCO judges

Constitution Petition Regarding PCO Judges:The decision of the court in CONSTITUTION PETITION NO. 08 and 09 OF 2009 from 14 member bench headed by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, summarily removed all justices of higher judiciary who were not part of it as on November 2, 2007. There removal was so ordered on ground that advice of de-jure Chief Justice of Supreme Pakistan was not obtained in these cases. In the same decision the court had held the de-jure Chief Justice between the period of November 3, 2007 and March 22, 2009 was Justice Chaudhry.

There were three groups of these removed justices.

Those who were elevated to higher courts and initially took oath on PCO.

Those who were elevated to higher courts after restoration of constitution, and were appointed by General Pervez Musharraf.

Those who were elevated to higher courts after restoration of constitution, and were appointed by Asif Ali Zardari.

This decision have resulted in situation where:

Newly appointed justices who never took any sort of oath on any PCO have been removed.

Sitting justices who took oath on PCO 2007 are still acting as justices, though their cases are to be sent to Supreme Judicial Council.

Sitting justices who accepted reappointed and took oath from Justice Dogar as still acting as justices of court with no action.

Justices who took oath on PCO of 1999 are still functioning as justices of higher judiciary.

LAHORE: Leading human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir on Monday raised questions about the role of the Supreme Court regarding Dr Arsalan Iftikhar’s case.

Asma, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), also suggested inviting a Scotland Yard (metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London) team to probe the case if the country’s institutions were not deemed trustworthy by the judiciary.

Talking to reporters at the Lahore High Court premises, Asma alleged the court was not meeting the requirements of delivering justice in the case against Arsalan in the Bahria Town scandal. She also rejected the appointment of Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Mohammad Shoaib Suddle, the officer tasked by the apex court to investigate the case, after it barred the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from investigating the matter. She alleged that the apex court wanted to influence the investigations, as Suddle is said to have close links with Arsalan.

“The Supreme Court should ask the Scotland Yard to conduct the investigation into Arsalan Iftikhar’s case, if it has no confidence in the national institutions,” she said. Asma pointed out that Suddle also regularly accompanied Arsalan at various events. Therefore, he could not be expected to conduct a transparent investigation into the case.

Asma said Arsalan should, however, be given the benefit of the doubt. But she also reiterated that everyone should be treated equally under the law.

Criticising the court, she said if there were any questions over the NAB’s investigation team, then it could have been changed instead of forming a new inquiry team.

Personally I really appreciated Ansar Abbasi’s artistic reptilian stature. His hair style, eyes, beard and face make up, all very similar but fiercer than Amitabh Bachan while attached a corrupt and sniveling bank manager Mathur and crime tycoon JK. Though Ansar’s height is about half to Amitabh but he acted well in super hit Shahanshah Ansar 2008 film and unveiled CJ Dogar’s corruption and use of power in getting some marks for his daugther in FSc examination. Our Shahanshah Ansar after that film has acted as hero or side hero in many films but after Chief of Chaudhries CoC Justice Iftkhar Chaudry regained his throne with the assistance of establishment, Ansar was assigned to defend the CoC’s Supreme League of Pakistan (SLOP).

CoC Iftikhar Chaudhry was compelled to open a closed gate aka the Mehran Gate after PML (N) opened a new gate called Memo Gate and then CoC’s legendary son Arsalan Iftakhar Choudhry opened third gate The CJ Gate and we know the heaven had seven gates so there are still four more gates to be opened. CoC acted well even better than Shahanshah Ansar and proved to be Shahanshah Akbar or Dilip Kumar in Mughal-e-Azam by taking suo moto against his son Arslan alias Shahzada Saleem alleged in long drive with Anarkali in London. Here in Lollywood’s Iftakhar-e-Azam Jodha Bai (Mrs CJ Chaudhry) was alleged to be accompanying Shahzada Saleem in shopping and staying in luxurious apartments in London. CoC Iftakhar-e-Azam has barred Shahazda Saleem from seeing her mother. “My father has told me I don’t need to return home nor make any contact with the family members,” Dr. Arsalan said. SLOP is made responsible by CoC to find out Anarkali of Iftakhar-e-Azam film and ordered to entomb her alive in a brick wall.

During this entire episode, many torchbearers of the supremacy and independence of Judiciary are playing their roles but Shahanshah Ansar is playing well and proved that SLOP or CoC (CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry) is not guilty of his son’s crime, that his innocent son was trapped and blackmailed by enemies of independent judiciary.

CoC wanted to decide this case according to verses in the Quran but not legal code of conduct. He saw no conflict of interest to head the bench, perhaps to chastise Arslan that why he did not invite the CoC to bea part of new Lollywood film “The CJ Gate” during shooting time in London.

CJ’s statement on oath that he swears on God that he had no knolwedge regarding shooting of the movie and Arslan’s business trips to London. CoC’s left eye was full of tears while he told in an open court that Arslan never had paid any penny to him or his mother and never had purchased even a few potatoes and beans for kitchen. “Arslan never bought suit for me even on Bakra Eid and he never offered me or his mother to pay for our Hajj expenses. Despite that I never taunted him for his luxurious London trip because he at least provided me with a lonely life in my home for a few months.”

CJ clearly told the open court that he trusts SLOP (Supreme League of Pakistan) and its second tier leader Justice Jawad Khwaja who is likely to solve the “The CJ Family Gate” issue politically by dialogues with elite business friends, journalists and lawyers. And if Arslan is found guilty he will be stoned in front of Anarkali and Anarkali will be cemented alive in a brick wall of the Independent Judicial Complex in Islamabad

In the meanwhile, kudos to great Pakistani Reptilian Ansar Abbasi who had proved Chief Justice Dogar as guilty of his daughter’s “crime” in 2008 and now in 2012 he has proved CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry as innocent of his son’s multi-millions business deals with Malik Riaz.http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=53220

Of course, keep in mind that there are at least four more gates are awaiting to be opened!